Racing News  

This year��s APQEII Cup is living up to its elite and cosmopolitan tradition

14/04/2015

The HK$20 million Group 1 Audemars Piguet Queen Elizabeth II Cup, noted for its competitively cosmopolitan flavour, has been consistently ranked among the world's top 2000-metre races and the 2015 edition, on 26 April, promises to be no different.

As if on cue, after the selected runners were announced on Thursday, Australia's Criterion and Britain's Red Cadeaux cemented their claims; added genuine lustre to the 2015 international assault and all but confirmed their trips with outstanding performances in the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) on Saturday (11 April) at Randwick in Sydney.

The David Hayes trained Criterion won the rich Randwick feature by two and a half lengths but many neutral observers were adamant that runner-up Red Cadeaux would have cut that margin considerably with a clearer run.

Criterion and Red Cadeaux, who have each previously performed with distinction at Sha Tin, will be joined by Japan's Staphanos and France's Smoking Sun who bid to defy the locals and tip the historical victory scales marginally in favour of the visitors.

The APQEII Cup spoils have been evenly split since the race attained international G1 status in 2001 - with seven wins to the locals and the same number to the internationals.

The race is currently ranked 19th on the official International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) list of the World's Top 100 Group 1 races. The race’s 2014 rating of 123.25 was the joint seventh highest achieved anywhere in the world last year.

And the form, from the race, has been perpetually franked. Last year's local quinella Designs On Rome and Military Attack went on, of course, to finish in the same order in December’s Hong Kong Cup with Criterion breathing down their necks in third place.

Immediately behind the celebrated local duo, last year, were South Africa's Vercingetorix - a G2 winner in Dubai in 2015 - and Epiphaneia who returned to his homeland to score a stunning four-length win in the 2014 G1 Japan Cup.

It was a similar story in 2013 with Military Attack beating another home-towner California Memory with the visitors Eishin Flash, a later G2 winner in Japan; and Sajjhaa, who had won the G1 Dubai Duty Free, in third and fourth.

Such is the ecumenical and competitive nature of the contest that it is fair to say there is no designated form-line for past winners - no guaranteed path to claiming the rich April prize supported - since 1999 - by Audemars Piguet.

Last year it was the Hong Kong Derby form that triumphed, courtesy of Designs On Rome, and that was also the case with Ambitious Dragon (2011) and Vengeance Of Rain (2005). However that is balanced by the fact that, in all, 17 of the past 20 Hong Kong Derby winners subsequently contested the APQEII Cup in the same season, so there are no guarantees.

Similarly, winning in Dubai, en route to Sha Tin in April, does not mean the second success is fait accompli. In fact it is quite the opposite, with the seven horses who have come to Hong Kong, after winning in Dubai World Cup day, all failing to salute.  

Of course it must be noted that three APQEII Cup winners - Silvano (2001), Archipenko (2008) and Presvis (2009) - were successful after being placed in Dubai lead-up races  and a further four Dubai placegetters subsequently finished in the frame in the APQEII Cup.

The key, perhaps appropriately in a race sponsored by the illustrious watch maker, is all in the timing; being able to peak at Sha Tin irrespective of where you ventured for your final lead-up run.

So will it be time for Staphanos, who attempts to become the third horse from his homeland to win the APQEII Cup? Or will it be Criterion, who would be the first Australian-based victor, or the evergreen Brit Red Cadeaux who, like France's Smoking Sun, seeks a second win for his home country? Smoking Sun ran on well to finish second behind Hong Kong’s Dan Excel in the G1 Singapore Airlines International Cup last year and will seek to emulate Jim And Tonic’s win for France back in 1999, the first year of Audemars Piguet’s sponsorship.

??

 

Related Website�G

Audemars Piguet QEII Cup

Close

Copyright © 2000-2024 The Hong Kong Jockey Club. All rights reserved.